Sunday, November 30, 2008

After my imprisonment in Singapore for 60 days, thanks to Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, I was let off for 5 days so as to get my things in order before I was banished forever from Singapore on November 26, 2008. The 5 days enabled me to attend the case in the High Court, generally known as the Kangaroo Court T shirt case. On Monday 24, 2008, the Singapore judge Justice Judith Prakash found all 3 defendants guilty as expected. The sentence was to be delivered on Thursday November 27, 2008 which I could not observe, as I was deported on Wednesday the 26th. There was jail terms for all 3 Defendants, with Mr. Tan having to serve 15 days, and the other 2 Isrizal and Shafi, 7 days each. In addition they were each ordered to pay the government costs of $5,000.00 each.

The facts are that these 3 wore T shirts with the image of a kangaroo in judicial robes, (which means that the court is not impartial but corrupt), to the hearing before Justice Belinda Ang, (which by the way, was the same judge whom I was accused of insulting, resulting in my 3 month imprisonment), from May 26 to May 28 2008 at the Supreme Court Singapore. As you will recall, the case before Judge Ang was for assessment of damages that Dr. Chee and company have to pay Lee Kuan Yew in his successful defamation action brought by Lee against Dr. Chee. For wearing these T shirts to Judge Ang’s court, Justice Prakash found them all guilty and the resultant severe penalties.

None of the 3 deserved any punishment. The Singapore constitution allows every citizen the freedom of speech and expression. And wearing T shirts with the image of a Kangaroo is the exercise of that freedom which the Constitution guarantees. Secondly it cannot amount to a contempt to say something which is true.

Everyone knows that the Singapore judiciary is complaint to the wishes of Lee Kuan Yew and his government as can be seen from the series of politically motivated court cases from as early as the 1960s up till today against the late JB Jeyaretnam to Dr. Chee Soon Juan, Lee's victims, who have been imprisoned and impoverished. How then can saying something that is true, that the Singapore courts are kangaroo courts and Singapore judges’ kangaroo judges, amount to contempt of court?

Justice Judith Prakash just as all her fellow judges in Singapore has once again disgraced herself, her office as judge and let down Singapore by shamelessly doing the bidding of her master Lee Kuan Yew by convicting and punishing these brave young men, who are in fact the pride of Singapore. They unlike the masses who live in fear of Lee Kuan Yew, had the courage to speak the truth and do what had to be done, which is to stand up to their convictions and say what has to be said, come what may.

These politically motivated cases, intended to break the will of good upstanding men and women of Singapore is difficult to endure. The jail terms of 15 days and 7 days is bad enough but endurable. But what is crippling is not the jail terms. It is the court costs of $5,000.00 (about US$4,000.00) each that they have to pay. This is a huge crippling amount of money for an average wage earner in Singapore.

If they find the money to pay, it will be a lesson to them never to criticize Lee's courts again. On the other hand, if they cannot pay, they would be made bankrupt, which means they cannot travel outside Singapore and the requirement that they report each month to the Bankruptcy office to explain their financial standing. Either way it is a debilitating crippling punishment, intended to send a clear signal both to them and everyone else that they should not, ever, dare to criticize Lee Kuan Yew or his courts, regardless of whatever dishonesty he or his courts perpetrate.

And if they ever do what they did again, they will be sent to jail for longer periods as well as suffer even heavier financial burdens.

With Lee Kuan Yew abusing the law courts to stay in power, and with unprincipled shameless judges such as Judith Prakash, what then is the answer to make this fascist dictatorship of Lee Kuan Yew accountable to the people? It is easy for me to say from the safety of the United States that more and more Singaporeans should pick up the courage that these 3 admirable young patriots had, and do what is right.

But that is easier said than done. During my 6 months forced stay in Singapore, with my passport held by Singapore police, waiting for my trial 4 months later, I had ample time to meet many Singaporeans. Each time I told Singaporeans to stand up to this dictatorship by open protest, I have always been faced with the same expected answer.

They tell me that they are all ready to speak up against the dictatorship, but they cannot because they would lose their jobs and their children would suffer; they and their families would be ruined financially at the hands of these corrupt compliant judges. This, you would well see, is a hopeless situation, forcing them to suffer in silence in fear of Lee Kuan Yew and his courts.

I do not have an answer to this question. Dr. Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin have paid gravely to stand up to their convictions. Dr. Chee has lost everything and so has his sister. In history, there are only a handful of men like Dr. Chee, like Nelson Mandela and Gandhi. It is unreasonable to expect ordinary people to be martyrs like them.

Lee Kuan Yew as you can see has a grip on power. And his principle instrument to stay in power is his law courts with his compliant judges which he uses to destroy and demolish his opponents, by bending and breaking the law outright when necessary.

But I know certain truths painful about the country. One is that it is imposable to change this government through parliamentary elections. The Singapore Parliament is nothing more than a rubber stamp. As Christopher Lingle, the NUS professor who was charged with contempt of court and managed to flee the country had written, "Singapore is a one party Leninist state".

Although outwardly Lee Kuan Yew portrays Singapore as a Parliamentary democracy, nothing is further from the truth. It is Lee Kuan Yew, the 86 year old dictator who controls everything, the courts, the trade unions, the media, everything. Parliament has no powers at all. Members of Parliament are mere stooges who would be quite prepared to say 2 plus 2 is 27 or any number Lee Kuan Yew wishes, to take the example of Orwell's 1984.

Therefore the only way to change this government and to make it accountable is for people to be able to say that 2 and 2 are 4 and not any other number of Lee's choosing. And the way to do this is not through the elections of 2010, the next general elections in Singapore, but through peaceful protest on the street.

But peaceful protest means unbearable hardship to the protestors. It would mean 15 days jail and $5,000.00 court costs liability, if not more, to take the recent example of the Kangaroo T shirt case.

With the crippling and terminal nature of these punishments, who among Singaporeans will be prepared to embark on this dangerous adventure? George Orwell in 1984, said correctly that the proletariat will not be the ones with the daring to do it; because they do not understand the need for such abstract values such as freedom and democracy, being content with the hope of getting a an extra $1,000.00 in pay or a better TV set. Neither will members of the elite with the knowledge of such values as freedom; the Inner or Outer Party in his novel 1984, be prepared for that sacrifice, as they would have too much to lose financially.

The answer lies with the young men and women with a tertiary education, citizens who are armed with a good English education, who know that they can succeed anywhere in the world, who would care 2 hoots to what Lee Kuan Yew can do to them. If they protest and get arrested, so what? They can take the next flight out to Australia where they will be welcomed with open arms, where they and their families can live as free men and women, able to speak their minds without fear of Lee Kuan Yew or anyone else.

It is these young men and women who should take courage and join Dr. Chee Soon Juan and his noble fight to seek freedom for his people. And I call upon them not to remain silent and do what is right and noble. Stand up for Singapore and stand up for the truth. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Leaving Singapore for a life overseas is itself the greatest form of protest against Lee Kuan Yew and his politically motivated courts. In effect, by leaving, you are telling Lee Kuan Yew that you are not prepared to live as a slave in his island and the ability to live a free man is worth more than any amount of riches that corrupt judges such as Judge Judith Prakash can earn in her entire lifetime by playing second fiddle to Lee Kuan Yew, her master.

At present, I understand that as many as 1000 Singaporeans emigrate from Singapore’s shores annually for countries such as Australia. I have read that Lee Kuan Yew himself has gone to cities such as Melbourne begging overseas Singaporeans to return with no success whatsoever. Why should they return to a fear infested island where the slightest criticism of Lee or his courts will result in crippling financial ruin! By the way, I understand that the numbers of those leaving has been steadily increasing above 1000 each year!

As for the likes of Justice Judith Prakash, she will continue to live her life in luxury for the dirty work she does to please her master Lee Kuan Yew. Her income for being an agent for Lee Kuan Yew to silence and destroy his critics, I understand is several millions of dollars a year.

But I am sure that she loathes each time that she has to look at herself in the mirror, because what she sees is the face of a dishonorable unconscionable and unprincipled human being who lives by prostituting her position as a judge to please her master Lee Kuan Yew, who finds no other way to stay in power other than abusing the law to silence his critics.

May I say the same thing that I said about her fellow Singapore judge, Judge Belinda Ang, which landed me in prison for 2 months? Judge Judith Prakash of the Supreme Court Singapore has prostituted herself in her capacity as a judge hearing the Kangaroo T shirt case on November 24, 2008 by being nothing more than an employee of Lee Kuan Yew and his son, whom he appointed Prime Minister. By her actions in sending these young men to prison and making them pay crippling court costs of $5,000.00 each, she has shamelessly disgraced herself, her office of a judge, disgraced the Singapore Constitution and disgraced Singapore.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

Friday, November 28, 2008

I was in prison in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore from Sept 20, 2008 to Nov 20, 2008 for writing a blog post criticizing Singapore's Judge Belinda Ang for acting no better than an agent of Lee Kuan Yew and his son while presiding over the assessment of damages hearing from May 26, to May 28, 2008 in the case of Lee Kuan Yew against Dr. Chee Soon Juan.

While in prison, I read the book, "All the Shah's Men" by Kinzer. An excellent book which I strongly recommend. It describes how in 1953, the British and Americans conspired to depose a lawfully elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadeq because he nationalized the prize of the British in Iran, the Anglo Iranian Oil company, with the excuse that if he was not deposed and replaced with the pro West MohammedReza Shah, the Russians will occupy Iran.

The methods used by the American CIA are almost identical to those of Lee Kuan Yew. For instance, the Americans discredited Mossadeq by printing and publishing articles discrediting him in Iran, calling him an unbeliever, a communist and even a Jew. Then they used corrupt judges to convict anyone with sympathies for Mossadeq with false charges. People who were sympathetic to Mossadeq were dismissed from their posts. They managed to get almost everyone in the Parliament to support their policies and to condemn Mossadeq. Finally they managed to get the Shah to sign fermans, a sort of edict, ordering Mossadeq to step down, which he did, and promptly replaced by the British and American puppet, the Shah of Iran.

These tactics of 1953 Iran are almost identical to those of Lee in 2008 except that it varies in degree only. But it should be clear to anyone that such dirty tactics of 1953 Iran cannot work in modern day Singapore of 2008, for the simple reason that today, we have the Internet. In 1953, when newspapers containing these falsities against Mossadeq, that were in fact written in Washington and London appeared the next day in Tehran, appearing as if they were written there, the people had no way of knowing otherwise. Without the Internet, they believed every lie put out to them in these smear sheets. The people being illiterate and ignorant had no way to disbelieve the false convictions by the false courts convicting Mossadeq's supporters.

But Lee today still uses these same dirty tactics to stay in power. He uses his courts as a weapon to destroy his political opponents from Jeyaretnam in the 60s to Dr. Chee in 2008. Yet he demands that everyone respect the legal system under pain of imprisonment and impoverishment. This is an untenable situation for him. Every Singaporean today, unless he is blind, is well aware through the series of well publicized political cases that there is no rule of law in Singapore. Yet he demands that people not say it as it is. What is left for Lee is one thing and one thing alone. Fear. His only tool is to instill fear throughout the people to silence them.

As for the state controlled media and the press, it is exactly the same as 1953 Iran. The papers on a daily basis call Dr. Chee a liar, a cheat and what not. But today, nobody believes a thing written in the Singapore press about Lee's critics. Today they have access to he Internet. They can read outside publications which tell a completely different story about Lee's critics. At they end of the day, no one believes the state controlled press of Singapore which demonizes Lee's opponents on a daily basis. In desperation to continue singing the same tune, Lee takes the foreign press to court to shut them up. But whether they are shut up or not, in the end, the effect on Singaporeans is just the opposite. All the more they disbelieve Lee and believe that the truth lies in his victims, not with Lee.

What is left is one thing and one thing alone. Fear. Fear to criticize. Fear to complain. Fear to speak your mind. You end up being a skilled exponent of "doublespeak" of Orwell's 1984. That is to say something when you believe something else. To say that Singapore has the rule of law, when you know it does not. To say that Dr. Chee is a crook, when you know he isn't.

I cannot see how this place can go on like this for long. The educated have already seen the dishonesty in this whole thing. So they pack up and leave for the west, particularly for Australia. They can afford to leave. They are English educated with tertiary education. They can go anywhere they want, so they leave.

The average man without a tertiary education may not see this, and so he may stay. But such citizens are not the essential workforce that Singapore needs. What they need is the brains for leadership. But alas, the brains know the truth and the truth is not conducive to Lee Kuan Yew.

I do not believe that Singapore can be governed this day and age by fear alone. As you can see, the government comes down very hard on critics by imprisoning them, impoverishing them and bankrupting them. Yet all this punishment is failing to deter more and more young men from coming out and openly condemning this dictatorial regime.

What will happen is this. As Lee finds that his critics increase in number, he will increase the punishments meted out to them. But I cannot see this working for him. In the end he will alienate even more Singaporeans to a point where they will not take this lying down and then there must be change. It is inevitable.

He has to know that 1953 colonial tactics cannot work in 2008 Singapore. The good news is, he does not appear to know this.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

I am back in my office in Fremont, Northern California. I arrived at San Francisco airport on May 26, 2008 in the evening. Major problems caused by being forced to stay in Singapore for 6 months. Unpaid office rent. Unpaid mortgage. Disconnected telephone lines. Disconnected home utilities. Massive credit card debts.

But I tell you what. I am breathing. I am alive. And I am in America. Where anything is possible. And what is most important, I intend to continue with even greater resolve to expose the dictatorship which is what Singapore is. If Lee Kuan Yew thought even for a moment that he has broken my spirit, he can't be more wrong.

In a way, Lee Kuan Yew has done me a great service. Before my arrest and imprisonment, this blog was well read. But after that he has made it a must read, for a great many. And furthermore, it has given it international publicity. And he has given me credibility to an extent I did not have before.

After my release from prison on the 20th of November 2008, I was allowed to remain in Singapore for 5 days to get my personal affairs sorted out before I left. A condition of being allowed to remain in Singapore for 5 days was that I did not interfere in Singapore's domestic politics. I am prohibited from entering Singapore again unless I have prior permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In effect, I will never be able to return to Singapore.

But even if I was given permission to return it would be unwise to do it, since I could be arrested again under one or more of the litany of laws in place to silence criticism. And for sure, I am not looking forward to more time in a Singapore prison.

I have many matters to take care of presently leaving little time to write blog posts. But Lee Kuan Yew and his government can take this from me now. I am defying the undertaking that I gave in court on September 12, 2008 when I admitted being in contempt of court. I am withdrawing the admission and repeating what I have always said that the Singapore judiciary is corrupt for being a stooge to Lee Kuan Yew and his government. I withdraw all apologies that were given in Court 15, Subordinate Court Singapore to Judge Leslie Chew. The only reason for my apology was a desire to get out of prison as soon as possible. They brought these new contempt charges while I was incarcerated in prison, with only 8 days to go for my release. If I had not apologised as Lee Kuan Yew wanted, there was the possibility that I could be kept in prison for a further period of up to 6 months, according to the law code section.

I had also given an undertaking to remove the 2 blog posts, of Sept 1, 2008 and Sept 6, 2008 which referred to my trial and conviction before Judge James Leong in the Subordinate Courts for disorderly behaviour and insulting a policemen, charges entirely made up by the police to discredit me. I will be re-posting those 2 blog posts and stand by every word that I had written in them.

For the moment goodbye. Too much personal work to catch up. The telephone, the rent, the mortgage etc etc. But I will be blogging again soonest. Have no fear.

Your letters are welcome. We reserve the right to publish your letters. Please Email your letters to nair.gopalan@yahoo.com And if you like what I write, please tell your friends. You will be helping democracy by distributing this widely. This blog not only gives information, it dispels government propaganda put out by this dictatorial regime.

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About Me

Determined to find the Truth.
Born Singapore, educated Winstedt School 2 (next to Monks Hill in Newton, Singapore) Raffles Institution, National Service, some travel in Europe, then law studies England, return to Singapore, practiced for 10 years, active Workers Party member, stood elections 1988 and 1991 in Singapore, was harassed and persecuted by Lee Kuan Yew for my political beliefs, left for USA, obtained asylum and admitted California State Bar, practice law ever since in Fremont California near San Francisco. Relinquished Singapore citizenship 2005 because I was not prepared to permit Lee Kuan Yew to unjustly retain my CPF funds if I remained Singapore Citizen. On principle, the only correct thing for me to do was to give it up, for my CPF funds. I am an American Citizen as of 2004.